The Academic Council meeting was held at the English Department auditorium on the campus. While rejecting the recommendations of the Faculty of Design and Fine Arts to create a Department of Dance, the members of the council stated that there was no need for a separate department in view of the "paucity of funds" in the University, sources said. The recommendations of a committee to start an MA in Music Instrumental (Tabla), was also rejected. The council has accepted the proposal to introduce the semester system in MSc Physics and Chemistry from the coming session, sources said.

It was also decided that the course in Defence Studies be withdrawn for the time being and the matter be considered when requisite infrastructure is available. The Faculty of Languages had recommended that five-year integrated MA courses be started from the session 2000-01 in German, French and Russian. The proposal was turned down. In its meeting this year in March, the faculty also recommended introducing Hindi, Sanskrit and all other languages in B.Com Part III and B.Sc as optional subjects. The council has decided to set up a committee to look into the recommendations.

A broad-based committee constituted by the V-C, which met on May 11, recommended that a course be started in Guru Granth Sahib Studies in the Department of Punjabi. It was decided that the course would consist of three papers -- Textual Study of the Guru Granth Sahib, Historical Perspectives of the Guru Granth Sahib and Philosophical and Conceptual Study of the Guru Granth Sahib -- of 100 marks each, and a dissertation of 300 marks. The council cleared the proposal today.